February Sixth...

We are watching Dune... Son1 is off with girlfriend... Son2 and son3 had pajama day playing video games... They have a three day weekend... Hubby and I went to Walmart for just a quick trip of a couple of items today... otherwise it has been a lazy day... It has been raining all day... I have a headache...


I have already been back to work a whole week since vacation... And I had to work 40hrs... Setting up the new spring shoe sets... Inventory is only three weeks away... Lots of Fall markdowns... All new signing setup to change out... and our ads have changed from Sundays to Fridays... I like it so much better... now I can get all the sale tables ready on Thursday and come in early on Friday to put up all the signs... So now Sunday I have a whole day with lots of floor coverage where I can stock the floor before the store opens and then catch up on opening the boxes and locating the stockroom... then I figure Monday, Tuesday will be stocking days and opening boxes... we'll see how soon before they change things again and mess up my plans....


Miss Holly is such a woman... meaning she is so mean, lol... she keeps attacking and biting lately... I just can't figure out what she is trying to tell me... she keeps going out but then wants back in cause it is cold and wet outside... she wants to be petted but then no... she just wants to sit on you for the body heat... she is totally addicted to the laser light... you just have to make the clicking noise with your tongue and she is looking everywhere for the light... right now she is asleep on the bed....


The bird feeder on the right is new... holds four pounds of birdseed... the birds love it...


They still love their old bird feeders too...


Last weekend hubby trimmed the branches from the lemon tree and harvested a ton of lemons... the neighbors benefit from the limbs that hang in their yard... we get two harvests a year, summer and winter... still lots of lemons on the tree and more limbs to trim but it was raining this weekend... We usually take a bunch to work and share... or make lots of lemonade... I want to make a lemon pie but have yet to find a recipe that uses whole lemons and not just a bit of juice...


I am loving the Google reader for reading blogs and have been keeping up... spending a bit too much time at facebook lately playing games though... I have lots of things around the house that need doing... and need to get back to writing in my own blog... I will be glad when the sun shines once again and these gray foggy hazy days of winter will be done... sucks out all my energy and makes me blah... should feel comfy cozy in the house but not so much... stress myself out with all the things not getting done...


The daffodils are blooming....


And the blossoms on the plum and pear tree with be opening any day now...


On Wednesday there were about twenty birds in the pear tree in the front yard that I had never seen before...


They had a yellow tint and a crest on their heads....


It was hard getting a picture of them because they would not sit still and kept fluttering from branch to branch... and they were very noisy, making a beeping chirping sound... when I walked out across the yard, they all flew away at once and did not come back...


The allysium came back and on the bottom of the picture one of the bulbs from last year came up... I planted many different bulbs in the backyard but can't remember what all now... I did have a map I drew somewhere in the kitchen...


Hubby had put pavers down under the bird feeders last September so the seeds wouldn't grow up everywhere... but then I remembered the other day that I had planted bulbs there too so had hubby quickly pull up the pavers and the bulbs were coming up under them... so it was just in time...


Only one week til Valentine's Day... need to make some Valentine cards tomorrow to get in the mail... and pay some bills... son2 needs to finish his Thank you cars from Christmas and his birthday... Son3 needs to get his Valentine cards ready for his school party for Wednesday... and memorize his 8x and read his library books... son2 has homework too... son1 has to work tomorrow... Only about a half hour of Dune left... wow I never made it through this movie before... I may actually see the whole thing... I still have a headache though... don't think I got enough sleep this week.... So I will be heading to bed soon....

Happy Journaling...

Zoo Slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow Happy Journaling...

The Motivation Station

Taking a moment to brag about The Motivation Station... A blog I co-host with some friends to help us get it all done... Our theme for February is Love, which I am hosting on Sundays along with my regular hosting day of Thursday... So if you haven't yet, you should stop by and check us out... Along with our weekly challenges we've started a new long term challenge that you will need a pedometer for... and then pick an imaginary destination, go to Mapquest and see how many miles to get there, convert the miles to steps: every 10,000 steps is 5 miles... and then see how long it takes you to get there by combining all your steps throughout the day from work to cleaning the house to walking on your treadmill or just through your neighborhood... I've chosen Disneyland, 508,000 steps... I have 471,818 to go...

Thanks for stopping by...
Happy Journaling...

Gardening...

Hubby and I went to Walmart on Friday... I was in a shopping mood, not a good plan... Some of the goodies I got was a new pot for the tall plant by the sliding glass door... The above picture is the before...


This is the after picture... The third plant got the larger pot from the tall plant by the door... so everyone has growing room now...


I also got an indoor plant... I haven't had any indoor plants for my birdhouse pots... still have another birdhouse pot that needs a plant... next time...


These poor plants were on clearance for a $1ea... so I rescued six of them... I checked on them today and they are much happier...




I also got seeds to plant... some zinnias...


some cosmos...


very tall sunflowers...


California poppy... plus I have seeds leftover...


more cosmos... I still have seeds leftover...


more of the very tall sunflowers...


and my Indian Blankets from last year that Martha sent the seeds all the way from Florida are hanging in and hopefully will have flowers again this year...

Happy Journaling...

Color Carnival

To Play Visit Martha...









Happy Journaling...

January Twenty Eighth...

Again I have become a bad blogger due to the evil Facebook... but wait I have discovered something yesterday... I have discovered the Google Reader for blogs... I know, I'm a little slow... I can just leave it open on my tool bar and it shows me when a new entry has been added... at first I did not think it was working as nothing new was showing so I went to my blog to check on new entries and nope, I am just able to read faster than you can post, lol.... So maybe that will help me keep up and not feel overwhelmed with blogger anymore... And keep me away from Facebook once in a while... not that I do anything there but read status updates and play a few games...


I have been on vacation this week... my last week of 2009 vacation hours... I am watching Tribute by Nora Roberts with Brittney Murphy... Hubby had to work all day and then go back to cover for a meeting this evening... Tomorrow he is off and we get to spend the day together going out to lunch and shopping for a birthday present for a bday party son3 is going to on Saturday...


Son1 has been busy working on cars at work and working on his car... A few weeks ago he changed his car from an automatic to a manual shift... So Sunday through Tuesday of this week he had to change the rear differential I think... and while he had everything torn apart, he also took out the air conditioner since it did not work and put in something like a fake air conditioner and he changed out the radiator... when he was all done he had a gas leak so after work on Wednesday, he borrowed my van, he put a clamp on the hose and now the car is all up and running again... Tonight he is off to work again but off tomorrow... still only getting 15-20 hours... He did however take his training to be a tech 2... He can't be a tech 2 til a position opens up but he can do the commission tech 2 jobs along with his tech 1...

Son2 had his 16th birthday on Monday, but we started the celebrating last Saturday... we got him a XBox 360... he's been wanting one for a while... I thought I had found a great deal of used games online at Walmart but when they came they were for XBox not XBox 360, didn't think you could still get the old games... so we mailed them back yesterday and son2 has already gotten several games from us, some bought with gift cards and some loaned from friends.... so guess where he is right now...

Son3 is all excited this week between son2's bday and now on Saturday he is going to a bday party at the Lazer Quest to play lazer tag for the first time...


Fresno must have been in a bubble this past week... we barely got two of the seven inches they predicted... no lightening, no thunder, barely any ominous black clouds... I did see a beautiful sunset with all the blues and pinks and sun rays streaming up through the rain clouds...


I've just been piddling around the house this week... This was my room back in September... it's a dump all for everything... and then some since son1 moved in....


Another before shot...


Now these are after shots... got all of the boys baby things in the tubs... son3 is 8yrs old and I still had baby things stacked about... still need to go through the tubs again some day and downsize a bit more... interesting how at first you save everything and then as the boys get older not everything is as precious...


So now half of the dresser is actually clear... now no more dumping... all those drawers need to be cleaned out too.... lots of cards and letters and mementos to be sorted and stored...


The floor in front of the bed is all clear and we can walk without stubbing toes...


The corner by the window I finished up today and put the recent certificates and report cards in the boys folders I put together... The boxes are the boys school saved school papers and the plastic drawers are from my front room office space that we cleared for son1....


Now of course have to sort through all the stuff in the hall that we moved out of the front room office to make room for son1... But my room is a bit more pleasant now and more spacious...

Well Tribute is now going off... Think I watched the movie more than write the entry... It was good! Of course Nora Roberts books are better than the movies especially her trilogies... Now Supernatural is coming on and I'm taping Bones and Fringe... Time to tuck in son3 for bedtime...

Happy Journaling...

Color Carnival

In between all the rain storms last week, we had a rainbow...




Close up shot that I contrasted in photoshop...

Happy Journaling...

Son2's 16th Birthday...

Happy Journaling...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Holly and the Birds Slideshow...

Make a Smilebox slideshow Happy Journaling...

Color Carnival

Son3's new Bakugan sheets he got for Christmas...



Happy Journaling...

Color Carnival

To Play Visit Martha...



A new tea pot/cup I got for Christmas...



Happy Journaling...

January Sixth...

Six days into the new year already... Christmas was really good! New Year's was ok... The weekend after new year's I crashed... after the holiday blahs... exhausted... and then very grumpy... yesterday I finally started to see some light... at the end of the tunnel... not outside as that is not helping either with all the gray skies of winter... and fog... I think today is actually my first real 'day off' in three weeks... I was off Christmas day and the day after, New Year's eve and New Year's day... but do they really count as they were holidays and I got paid for them... this week I am back to Wednesday and Saturday off and I get to go in early as the boys are still out of school but I am working 40hrs.... I like 30hrs... although more money is good... but so is more time to be the mom and wife and me...

So of course I have started the new year with tons of new goals, most of them from 2009 as I don't think I ever started 2009, it sort of flew past without me... and I am already discouraged as it is six days into the new year and I only blinked... must it go by so fast... we are grownups... shouldn't time drag cause we are old and boring, lol... but actually time has flown since we bought the house and moved in ten years ago now... Christmas eve 1999...

I haven't even made my list for the new year of all the things I want to do... they are all flying around my head stressing me out... even at work I am already behind... we are still cleaning up from Christmas and people continue to shop and make new messes... I haven't opened any boxes from last week and there are sandals in there already... we've barely time to stock as all we do is help customers and clean up after them... I am very disgruntled at my town right now for being so disrespectful...

I never did clean son3's room or clean out clothes or do practice books or read books with son3 while the boys have been on winter break... son2 hasn't done anything either... they've barely got dressed or brushed their teeth but have played every computer game and watched every movie... I know we will get back to somewhat of a schedule when they are back at school but then there is homework and I am back to getting off late at work...

I need to clean my house big time... wash floors, clean bathrooms... deep cleaning not just run through the house cleaning... but since son1 moved home and brought a dog... time is not my own... but then before he moved back home we were still struggling to get on a schedule... but then for two years we kept expecting him to move back home... then for six months we had settled with the idea he was not so we were starting to get situated again and then he did move back home for six months now...
I don't want to put the blame on him as I do need to get my butte in gear sometimes but he has no routine and does not respect ours... we go to school and work everyday, eat dinner everyday, watch tv everyday... he goes to work three days a week, goes to friends, goes to girlfriends, girlfriend comes over here, he stays over at friends, sleeps til noon, eats dinner with us... but all of this is on any day of the week or every day of the week... we never know... and I don't mind him having his schedule and us having ours... he can just be a room mate/ tenant who comes and goes.... but he walks in the house and takes over... demanding our attention no matter what we are doing... right now he is not here as I assume he spent the night at his friend's house as that is where he went last night after work and eating dinner with us... he does not work again til Saturday, so I don't know if and when he will be home today and what he'll need... so it's not that I disapprove of anything in particular that he is doing, except managing his money and bills better, but that I need to do for me and quit jumping for him without me reacting and him getting mad... I know what it is it's not that I mind doing things for him but in my time not when he just expects us to jump cause he's in the house at the moment...

My biggest frustration of the year is so far is I wanted to just do my thing and get things done... but somehow it seems everyone is in my way and I don't know if that is my excuse or really a problem... have a plan, a schedule for the day... it seems as long as I am sitting on the computer hubby and the boys are happily off doing stuff but the minute I get up to start my chores they are all around me in my way... and I've discovered my first epiphany of the year... I know you all see me as upbeat and positive which is what my blog is, my happy place where everything is pretty... but boy have I become so negative... the last five years at work or something has made me very disgruntled.... now the hormones this past week aren't helping but I have been trying to see the positive at work and just do my job and not focus on everyone else's faults but I can't do it.... they say that when you point out others mistakes you are pointing out what you don't like in yourself... I'm very hard on myself as I am on everyone else... so at work I have been trying to see what the part timers get done instead of just focusing on what they don't do... it will be a process... hubby has a habit of coming in the door from work and giving out orders to the boys of what they didn't do during the day, which is fine when he gets home before me... but if it is my day off and I am sitting in the middle of the mess with the boys, he gets in trouble, lol... tell him, grown up in the house and to go change his clothes and come in again... or I would start pointing out all the things he hadn't done that week... after he changed on Sunday he asked me did I see what he had done that morning... I should have as I was sitting where the mess had been and I didn't even notice that he had put away all the storage bins of Christmas wrapping paper, bows, tissue paper... see even at home I just look at the what is not getting done instead of what is.....


But now let's return to the pretty part of the blog.... where I happily get lots done every day... I got hubby off to work this morning... son3 got up early this morning with me... I had hot chocolate and raisin toast, he had waffles with syrup and cool whip and chocolate milk... he watched his PBS shows... I spent just a few minutes at facebook, I have cut way back since the new year started... I loaded and ran the dishwasher... I am on the second load of laundry... I cleared off the island and dining room table... I took a shower and got dressed, son3 is pajama boy again... checked email... finally found a background and header for the blog that I like and I found some graphics for my Motivation Station entry for tomorrow... it's now 11:30am, four hours since I got up and son2 is now up...

I still need to wash the pots and pans, do three more loads of laundry, put away all the laundry including the loads I did the other day, do my entry for TMS, work on my 2010 list, vacuum, clean out the catalogs from Christmas, take a picture for color carnival, visit TMS and motivate, make pea soup with the leftover ham bone, spend just a few minutes cleaning my room-got to start it sometime, read blogs-another thing I have started doing again in 2010, watch Julie and Julia-I watched The Five People You Meet in Heaven the other day-so good, water the plants, and do the dishes again... and whatever else I add to the list... AOL mail has a feature I love, on the side it has a to do list you can click on and add and check off as you go....

I see Holly at the patio door wanting in... she likes to go out the laundry room door into the garage, then I leave the garage door open a bit so she can go outside but then she goes around to the backyard and sits by the patio door wanting back in... just so I can let her out the laundry room door....... between her and Danny I could spend all day letting pets in and out....

We've also had tons of , OK 15-25 backyard birds at our feeders and in our trees that hubby and I have been getting pictures of through the dining room window... I want to make a smile box slideshow of them.... and I need to put some pictures in my Not Just Roses blog.... I'm still taking pictures just no time to sit and play with them....
OK off to work on my day off.....
Happy Journaling...

The Motivation Station

We have started the new year over at The Motivation Station!
We will have monthly themes and weekly challenges...
Martha at Menagerie is up first with the month of January and her theme this month is Health and Fitness...
Challenges are posted on Sundays.... Then visit Monday through Friday to see how we're doing and let us know how you're doing....

Challenge #1 - Eliminate one thing in your diet that you know is bad for you and replace it with something good!

This is easy! I overdid it in December with the soda... so back to only one a day in my lunch and water the rest of the day.... however to challenge myself a bit more I'll see if I can find other things to replace with something good each day....

You'll have to come play with us to see what they are though.....

Happy Journaling...